Assessment of knowledge and attitude among postnatal mothers towards childhood vaccination in Malaysia

Abstract

Aim: Mothers knowledge and attitude toward childhood vaccination influence uptake is the most adequate tool and preventive aspects to infectious disease epidemics. The present study assesses and measures knowledge and attitude of postnatal mothers toward vaccination. Methods and results: The present study adopted a cross-sectional study design, whereby 200 postnatal mothers were identified during their postnatal visit to clinics. The subjects were accessed using questionnaire to assess the level of knowledge and attitude of mothers regarding vaccination. The objectives were to study the level of knowledge, the attitude, and to find the association between knowledge and attitude of the study subjects. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. The results was analyzed through chi-square test. The association between age (p = .031), education (p = .021), occupation (p = .013), and knowledge score toward vaccination was found to be statistically significant. However, ethnicity (p = .127), employment (p = .197), and mode of delivery (p = .750) toward mothers vaccination knowledge were not significant for the study. Mothers education, age, and occupation were found to be associated with attitude toward childhood vaccination. No association was found between ethnicity, employment, and mode of delivery with attitude of childhood vaccination. Conclusion: More than half of the studied mothers had good knowledge scores on vaccination, more than two-thirds of the studied mothers had good attitude scores on vaccination. However, the religious misconception and fear of autism was the main cause of vaccine resistance in Malaysia.

Maternal Knowledge on Routine Childhood Immunization: A Community Based Cross-sectional Study in Rural Area of Mon State, Myanmar

“…Although maternal education [10,14,16,17,20,22], occupation [16,20,22] and age [16,20,22] were identified as factors influencing the maternal knowledge on childhood vaccination in some studies conducted in different countries, the association was not statistically significant in the present study. A Lithuanian study [10] also reported that there was no significant association between maternal age and knowledge.…”

“…In this study more than three quarters of mothers (76.2%) had good knowledge on routine childhood immunization. Various findings had been reported by similar studies done in Lithuania (63.6%) [10], India (93.3% and 58%) [14,15], Malaysia (>50%) [16], Iraq (66.2%) [17], Nigeria (59%) [18] and Ethiopia (71.2%) [8]. The differences in socioeconomic status among study populations and place of study whether urban or rural would explain these findings.…”

Parental Awareness and Attitude about Childhood Immunization in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Parental knowledge of childhood immunization is crucial for increasing the vaccination coverage rate and parents' compliance with the vaccination schedule [17]. Based on our study findings, the majority of the respondents showed good knowledge of childhood vaccination in protecting children against potentially infectious diseases and their complications.…”

Adult-onset nasopharyngeal diphtheria: an uncommon but rapidly progressive and potentially fatal infection

“…The diphtheria vaccine, along with the pertussis and tetanus vaccines, were the pioneer vaccines used in Malaysia to kick-start the national immunisation programme back in 1960 (Balbir Singh et al, 2019). The diphtheria vaccine coverage in Malaysia is excellent, with a reported coverage of 99% in 2015 (Loganathan & Mohamed, 2018).…”